Sentinel Node for Accurate Diagnosis of the Head and Neck Carcinoma

When it comes to tumors of the head and neck, there is currently no reliable method for finding all the metastases of the neck. Therefore, we follow the rule of performing an elective dissection in the patients where more than 20% of metastases are expected. Even then, there are some patients with local recurrences. The explanation most likely lies in the incorrect histopathological diagnosis and unrecognized metastases. The ability to recognize smaller metastases can be accomplished by the use of the concept of the sentinel lymph node. This chapter describes the assessment of the neck status in 40 patients. In 18 patients, we have found metastases in the sentinel lymph nodes. It is important to note that in eight patients, metastases were found only after the use of serial cuts and immunohistological staining

Interleukin 7 receptor alpha polymorphism rs6897932 and susceptibility to multiple sclerosis in the Western Balkans

The interleukin 7 receptor alpha single nucleotide polymorphism rs6897932 was identified as a multiple sclerosis susceptibility-modifying polymorphism in genome-wide and gene scan studies, mainly in populations in western countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of interleukin 7 receptor alpha rs6897932 with multiple sclerosis in populations from the Western Balkans: Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. A total of 678 unrelated white patients and 597 unrelated, ethnically matched healthy controls were included in the study. Genotyping was performed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. We found no significant difference in genotype or allele frequencies between controls and patients with multiple sclerosis either separately in Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian populations or in the whole sample from the Western Balkans. The odds ratio for multiple sclerosis in this study was 1.04 (0.86-1.25) for the C allele. It is known that demographic as well as environmental factors have a substantial role in multiple sclerosis development, as well as population genetic background. The results of this study indicate that other types of genome variants should be required for the development and/or progression of multiple sclerosis, which may vary among populations